When I speak to Temi Adegbayibi on the phone, the 26-year-old photographer is on the move. He is travelling across London, then running up the stairs to his desk, fitting our conversation into the interstitial spaces of a life split between freelance photography, film production and working at the Royal Albert Hall. His glittering portfolio includes photographs of Jorja Smith, Basement Jaxx, Fireboy DML and Ezra Collective, but like many in the creative industries, he oscillates between the glamour of the stage and the reality of making a living.
He shot there for a couple of years before graduating to local gigs, building a body of work by approaching small artists and asking if he could photograph them. In 2022, Adegbayibi went to Lewes’s Love Supreme jazz festival to watch the band play one of their first major headline shows. One photo in particular, of TJ leaning back on his bass, and another of the whole band that was subsequently used on an album sleeve, convinced him that photography could become more than a hobby: “I was like: ‘Damn, I can actually do something with this.’” Since then, he has photographed Ezra on tour and at increasingly large shows, including their performance at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2023.
That led to a solo exhibition of his work celebrating British jazz, and eventually to his becoming one of the venue’s in-house photographers. Adegbayibi’s freelance work largely focuses on music, and has taken him to gigs and festivals across the UK, including Glastonbury and Recessland, the London festival celebrating Black music and culture. What distinguishes Adegbayibi’s photography is its sense of movement, intimacy and joy, particularly in his images of Black musicians.
There is a conscious resistance behind that approach: “Black people and musicians are often portrayed as aggressive, violent or angry,” he says. Inspired by visual artist Kat Anderson, he began experimenting with slow shutter speeds, light and layering to create photographs that “almost feel like you’re painting with light”. His Albert Hall exhibition explored movement and stillness within jazz – “how energetic, but also still, jazz moments can be while I’m taking pictures”.
The competitive nature of photography does not escape him. London is full of talented photographers, he says, and consistent work can be difficult to secure. But rather than seeing that as a reason to retreat, he sees the competition as motivation.
It made him think about the place his own photographs might occupy in that archive. I’m always trying to figure out how to capture the energy of a drum solo in a still image; I’d been researching slow shutters, layering and double exposures. We shot it in a blackout studio in Greenwich, set up the drums, ordered some pizza and just went for it.” David Kayode and Anna Adetiba“David is leading on saxophone and Anna is supporting him,” says Adegbayibi of this studio shot.
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